Judge Denies Meadows, Clark Motion to Avoid Arrest in Georgia Election Case

Fulton County Jail ahead of former President Donald Trump's surrender over the 2020 election case in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 22, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A federal judge on Aug. 23 denied requests made by former Trump administration officials Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark to avoid arrest in Fulton County, Georgia, over state charges related to the 2020 election results while their requests to move the case to federal court are pending.

Mr. Meadows and Mr. Clark have been named as defendants in an indictment against former President Donald Trump and a total of 18 others. Their actions in the former president’s challenge of the Georgia election results have led to them being charged with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleges that their actions constituted a “criminal racketeering enterprise” and gave the defendants until noon on Aug. 25 to voluntarily surrender or face arrest.

Mr. Meadows and Mr. Clark both filed motions for emergency relief, arguing that state criminal proceedings shouldn’t continue when they expect their case to be moved to federal court. Ms. Willis was required to respond by Aug. 23, which she did in opposition, calling the arguments “baseless,” “meritless,” and “improper.”

U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, denied the emergency requests the same day. He emphasized that no comment or ruling had been made on the requests to remove the case, but the pause in proceedings—which would have allowed Mr. Meadows and Mr. Clark to avoid arrest—was the only thing denied at the time.

Mr. Clark confirmed that he would be voluntarily surrendering before the deadline.

“The filing of a notice of removal of a criminal prosecution under Section 1455 ’shall not prevent the State court in which such prosecution is pending from proceeding further,'” Judge Jones wrote in his order denying Mr. Meadows’s request, echoing Ms. Willis’s arguments.

The order on Mr. Clark’s request was a brief paragraph, but the order on Mr. Meadows’s request was six pages, citing a scheduled upcoming hearing as the judge’s rationale for the ruling.

The court had already ordered an evidentiary hearing with both parties on Aug. 28 regarding the notice of removal, and Mr. Meadows’s lawyers pointed out that cases have been removed without such a hearing, but the judge didn’t find the precedents cited in the emergency motion to have similar agreements.

“Section 1455’s statutory language makes clear that an evidentiary hearing is to be conducted once a summary remand order has been entered,” Judge Jones wrote. “As Meadows’s arguments and cases cited to the contrary are not persuasive, the Court denies Meadows’s request for the Court to decide its jurisdiction over his criminal case before holding an evidentiary hearing.”

Legality

Ms. Willis had opposed the requests in a 13-page response, citing Section 1445, which outlines the process required for removals and doesn’t prevent state proceedings from taking place while a removal request is pending, only a state conviction.

Both defendants, along with defendant David Shafer, who served as an alternate elector in Georgia after the 2020 election, had argued that they were acting as federal officers and were thus immune to state prosecution under the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding,” the Constitution reads.

This has generally been taken to mean that federal laws take precedence over state laws and that federal officers therefore aren’t bound by state laws and courts.

Mr. Meadows, as former chief of staff to President Trump, was a high-ranking federal official. Mr. Clark, who served as assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division and later acting head of the Civil Division in the Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Trump, is likewise a high-ranking official, whose charges include issuing a DOJ statement. Mr. Shafer, as an alternate elector whose role was created by Congress’s Electoral Count Act, argued that Congress has jurisdiction over his actions, not a state court, and that at the very least he was acting “under color of a federal official,” which also allows him the same immunity.

The defendants have further argued First, Fifth, and 14th Amendment defenses.

Bond Agreements

More than a dozen defendants have already had bond agreements set, and several have already surrendered.

In total, President Trump had his set the highest at $200,000, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani at $150,000, Sidney Powell at $100,000, John Eastman at $100,000, Kenneth Chesebro at $100,000, Jenna Ellis at $100,000, David Shafer at $75,000, Cathleen Latham at $75,000, Stephen Lee at $75,000, Ray Smith III at $50,000, Robert Cheeley at $50,000, Michael Roman at $50,000, Shawn Still at $10,000, and Scott Hall at $10,000.

Attorneys Mr. Eastman, Mr. Chesebro, Mr. Smith, Mr. Giuliani, and Ms. Powell; alternate electors Ms. Latham and Mr. Shafer; and Georgia bail bondsman Mr. Hall have been booked at the Fulton County jail and released on bond.

Twice this week, President Trump confirmed an Aug. 24 surrender and on Aug. 23, promoted a rally led by supporter Laura Loomer.

At 10 a.m., supporters of the GOP front-runner in the 2024 presidential race are expected to gather along the street outside the Fulton County Jail.